Organizational Capacity

---
name: organizational-capacity
description: Draft the organizational capacity, applicant qualifications, management plan, key personnel, or sustainability section of a grant proposal. Covers evidencing track record with outcomes rather than adjectives, structuring key personnel narratives, addressing fiscal controls, and writing a credible post-award sustainability plan.
---

# Organizational Capacity

## Overview

This section answers: *if we fund this, will they deliver?* It is the one place
where writing about the organization is the point — but the currency is
demonstrated results, not self-description.

## When to Use

Drafting organizational capacity, applicant qualifications, key personnel,
management plan, or sustainability sections.

## Instructions

### Track record

Lead with outcomes from comparable prior work, drawing on
`/memories/org/AGENTS.md`.

Weak: "Our organization has a long history of serving the community with
excellence."
Strong: "Since 2019 the organization has delivered this model to 1,340
participants across four counties, with 78% completing the full program and
a 62% job-placement rate at six months — verified in the 2024 external
evaluation."

If the organization has held grants of comparable size, say so; managing a
$750,000 federal award is itself a qualification. If it has not, address the
gap directly by describing the fiscal and management systems that make the
scale-up credible.

### Key personnel

For each: name, title, FTE on this project, relevant qualifications, and
directly comparable prior work. Two to four sentences each. Effort here must
match the budget exactly. Vacant positions are stated as vacant, with the
hiring timeline and required qualifications — a fabricated staff member is
disqualifying.

### Management and governance

Reporting lines for the project, how decisions get made, board composition and
oversight role, and the fiscal controls in place: audit status and most recent
audit date, segregation of duties, and financial reporting cadence. Federal
applicants should address single-audit status where relevant.

### Partnerships

For each partner: their role, what they contribute, and whether the commitment
is documented. Distinguish a signed MOU from a letter of support from an
unconfirmed conversation — reviewers do, and overstating a partnership is a
common credibility failure.

### Sustainability

Say what happens when this grant ends. Credible answers name specific
mechanisms: diversified funding already in hand, earned revenue, an
institutional commitment to absorb costs, or a deliberate plan to sunset while
transferring capacity. "We will seek additional funding" is not a plan.

## Rules

- No adjective that the evidence does not already prove.
- Never invent staff, partners, awards, audit results, or outcome figures.
- Percent effort must reconcile with the budget justification exactly.
- Unverified partner commitments are `[NEEDS INPUT: <question>]`.
- Confirm length with `measure_text` before finishing.